Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to section 3.31 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the feasibility of extending the commitment on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for Cornwall to all regions of the UK.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will focus on restoring a sense of community, local pride and belonging across the country. The UKSPF will act as a primary lever in levelling up people and places in all parts of the UK to empower places to identify, and build on, their own strengths and needs at a local level.

UK-wide funding for the UKSPF will ramp up to at least match receipts from EU structural funds, which on average reached around £1.5 billion per year. Spending Review 2021 fulfils this commitment, with the announcement of over £2.6 billion for the UKSPF over the next three years, with funding reaching £1.5 billion in 2024-25.

The Government will publish further details on the fund in due course.